The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman
Family Foundation
andAll-Creatures.Org

Letters and Responses

Letter From Nicholas About Funding Hydroponic Meat - August 18, 2008

Dear Friend,

I would like to provide All-Creatures with an opportunity to participate in
an effort that has the potential to end the vast majority of animal suffering
and address some of the most critical environmental issues we face today.

The effort I am referring to concerns the research and development of
hydroponic or "in vitro" meat as an ethical and responsible alternative to
animal flesh for human consumption. Similar in concept to soil-free hydroponic
vegetable cultivation, hydroponic meat is grown without the body of the animal.

Currently, there are no funded hydroponic meat research and development
programs in the United States. To address this issue, I've entered a project
titled "Hydroponic Meat for a Sustainable Planet Earth" in the American Express
members project contest.

See link for project description:
http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/H6PLUB

Projects are eligible for $100K to $1.5M in funding. I have selected
New-harvest.org as the recipient organization in the event that this project is
awarded funding.

If you would like to show your support, there are several ways:

1. nominate this project
2. post a comment on the site
3. Provide this notice to others who would be interested in supporting this
idea.

Projects may be nominated by the community through the 31st of August.

The success of this project depends upon funding, and funding will only be
possible with the collective support of the compassionate community.

Though you and I may choose to live vegetarian lifestyles, in actuality,
overall meat consumption in the United States and in developing countries (e.g.
China) is on the rise. According to a United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization report, this trend is anticipated to continue into the future.
Hydroponic meat produced and marketed economically at a commercial scale
possesses the potential to undermine the demand for traditional meat as an
equivalent commodity in a capitalist economy, regardless of the values of the
consumer. If realized, hydroponic meat will be the most realistic and effective
approach to ending the majority of animal suffering and restoring our
environment.

Please join me and show your support for this project. If you have any
questions or concerns, feel free to write and I will be happy to respond.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Nick

P.S. The renowned primatologist, environmentalist and vegetarian Jane Goodall
is on the AmEx members project Advisory Panel responsible for advancing 25 of
the top community supported projects to the final voting rounds. With her
insight and your participation, I am confident that we will have a chance to
profoundly change the future.

We really don't know a whole lot about the process needed to produce
hydroponic meat other than a video we saw, basically because the very thought of
eating flesh is a real turn-off, but because of your letter, we will do a little
more research and let you know.

We hope the links you sent us give us the information on what is needed in
materials, ingredients, energy, and processing/production costs.